The Indiana Pacers simply spent two and a half months changing into nationwide darlings all through the NBA playoffs due to their fearlessness and never-quit perspective. It fueled them in opposition to the top-seeded Cavaliers, who they knocked off in 5 video games. That was stunning sufficient by itself. It then carried them by way of a tricky six-game sequence in opposition to the Knicks during which they have been heavy underdogs. They proved everybody fallacious once more. Then they pushed the Oklahoma Metropolis Thunder to seven video games within the NBA Finals — in what ended up being probably the most thrilling Finals matchup since 2016 — and had it not been for Tyrese Haliburton’s devastating Achilles tear within the opening minutes of Recreation 7, perhaps the Pacers are those nonetheless driving the excessive of a championship.

However Haliburton’s harm not solely sucked the life out of Recreation 7, and Indiana’s outlook for subsequent season, it additionally apparently scared the Pacers proper out of giving Myles Turner a brand new contract for subsequent season. The Pacers have been broadly anticipated to re-sign Turner — the longest-tenured participant on the workforce — to a brand new contract, a lot in order that it had been repeatedly reported that no different workforce had an opportunity to steal him from Indiana. 

So it got here to everybody’s shock when information broke Tuesday morning that Turner could be signing a four-year, $107 million take care of the Milwaukee Bucks. He wasn’t simply not staying with the workforce he helped take to the NBA Finals. He was headed to their in-division rival.

Even worse, Turner, by all accounts, did not wish to depart. The Pacers did not supply him a good sufficient contract for concern of paying the luxurious tax subsequent season. What a intestine punch. Turner, who virtually wrote an open love letter within the Gamers Tribune to the town of Indianapolis and the Pacers fanbase within the lead-up to the NBA Finals, was compelled out as a result of the Pacers have been too low cost and scared to pay their beginning heart what he was value and what he deserved.

All of the reporting main as much as free company was that the Pacers have been effective dipping into the luxurious tax to maintain Turner. A minimum of, that was true when the sequence was tied 1-1 in opposition to OKC. It will’ve been the primary time Indiana paid the tax since 2005, and at that time limit, the entrance workplace most likely envisioned the Pacers getting proper again to the Finals subsequent season. However Haliburton’s harm clearly modified all the things.

As a substitute of making an attempt to run it again with this nucleus of gamers for the 2026-27 season when Haliburton can be again wholesome, the Pacers have primarily determined to not lock themselves an excessive amount of into this core with hopes of remaining versatile for the longer term. Normally, you possibly can’t fault a workforce for not desirous to pay the luxurious tax for a roster that is not going to win a title. However the Pacers aren’t most instances. Certain, they will not be title contenders subsequent season, however this was a workforce one Achilles harm away from hoisting the Larry O’Brien trophy. They legitimately made the Thunder sweat, and have been the one workforce to drive OKC into changes from the opening tip of the sequence. Indiana gave a blueprint on how you can beat the Thunder, and so they’ve principally simply determined to desert that for the sake of balancing the books.

That is the brand new regular within the NBA with a CBA that locations suffocating restrictions on high-spending groups. And when your championship window will be closed immediately with one ill-fated harm, just like the one Haliburton simply suffered, groups get petrified of all of the ramifications. The Celtics are a very good instance of that. Jayson Tatum suffered an Achilles tear within the second spherical, and Boston instantly went into the offseason seeking to shed wage. Up to now, they’ve parted methods with Jrue Vacation and Kristaps Porzingis, and there have been rumors about different groups eager about prying Derrick White and Jaylen Brown away. The Pacers most likely regarded on the Celtics and envisioned a reasonably comparable future for themselves had they paid Turner.

The wild factor is, Turner’s contract with the Bucks is pretty cheap at round $26.75 million a season. That is beneath the anticipated $30 million a yr many anticipated he would get from the Pacers, and whereas it is solely a pair million in financial savings, it might’ve saved Indiana only a hair above the primary tax apron. However Indiana determined the chance wasn’t value it, even when it means parting methods with somebody who has been the center of this Indiana workforce for thus a few years.

Keep in mind that 2026 first-round choose the Pacers bought again after making a commerce with the Pelicans throughout the NBA Finals? With Turner gone and Haliburton harm, that would very properly be a top-10 lottery choose in what is anticipated to be a loaded draft subsequent yr. Coincidentally, the Pacers made that deal a day after Recreation 5 of the Finals, which is when Haliburton first picked up a calf pressure. That commerce now appears like a large insurance coverage coverage and a few spooky foreshadowing on Indiana’s half, however it does not make Turner’s departure sting any much less.

Haliburton’s harm and the specter of the second tax apron simply made Turner collateral injury, and after an thrilling run to the NBA Finals that ended on a somber be aware, this has to price like salt within the wound to Pacers followers.